Giovanni Mario Lucchesi and the stole of Pope Francis. “Recycling and imagination, with Africa in the heart”

After a long period of voluntary civil service in Africa, John Mario Lucchesi he says he was captivated by the colors and atmosphere of Zambia. “When it’s time to go home, I board the plane with nothing but two boxes of original wax fabrics from Joseph’s local shop. I’m ready to bring my dream to life.” From those boxes full of fabrics will be born Mafric “La moda che fa bene”, an Italian brand that aims at a new, sustainable and ethical fashion, producing garments through collaboration with social tailors, where migrants and refugees work in Italy. Leaders that even reached the Pope.

In fact, the same reality has created the colored scarf with the now well-known “climate stripes” that tell the tale of global warming and which on 5 June, on the occasion of the start of the Green&Blue FestivalGedi’s leaders handed over to Pope Francis.

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The idea of ​​Mafric (Modafricacraft) – as told by the founder himself – was born five years back from Zambia where appreciating the colorful fabrics and the African “wax”, Lucchesi began to think about the development of fair trade products by putting together our textile culture with that of Africa. To achieve this, in the Milanese laboratories they mainly use waste fabrics, processed and re-proposed with a new style thanks to the commitment of refugees and migrants who work in social cooperatives.

“Ours is a reality that works thanks to a circuit of solidarity and social inclusion, as well as environmental sustainability – he explains to Lucchesi -. The focus is to create a union of styles, between African colors and Italian fashion and everything is done above all by people from other countries who have arrived here in Italy. Our policy is in fact to work with social tailors: people with various frailties and disabilities, refugees, migrants. We also aim atuse of leftovers and scraps of fabrics from large productions to create new garments on which we print our fantasies”.

All in full view of circular economy given that “those scraps should be thrown away but instead, thanks to us, they have a second life”. The creation of the stole worn by Pope Bergoglio was also born from the precious work of those who are now attempting a new path in our country, perhaps because they fled wars or areas where climate change makes survival increasingly complex.

“I think they also wanted to involve us because of the importance of the message, given that we work with migrants. The stole in terms of fantasy and design is the one relating to the global average temperature of the last 150 years, which, as we know, is unfortunately growing. It was a pleasure for us to be able to make it. Furthermore, we could say that it has a double value, precisely because we work with those who are often the ones who have suffered the most from the impacts ofrising temperatures and they were forced, perhaps precisely because of the effects of the climate such as heat or drought, to leave their lands”.

As Lucchesi explains, fourteen different nationalities are represented within the cooperatives with which Mafric collaborates, “such as those within the cooperative The Colored Thread of Milan, the reality with which we mainly work and which I preside over. The same cooperative has just won an award from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) precisely for the introduction of refugees into the world of work”.

Last but not least, the appearance of the “interculturality” and that of sustainability are two key factors in Mafric’s vision: based on recovery, give life to garments that can represent multiple cultures.

“In the textile sector – comments Lucchesi – there is an overproduction of clothing destined to feed large landfills: much more is produced than what is consumed. Our aim is therefore not to put new raw materials into circulation, but to use the existing one to create new garments. Bearing in mind that the textile industry after fossil fuels is among the most polluting in the world, it is important to get this message across. Which is also ours: to work both on a social and environmental level, as well as on a cultural level. By combining different styles, colors and patterns typical of Africa connected with Italian fashion, we create something unique and new, showing how lively and enriching the union between two different cultures can be”.